Breakdown of Opettaja kielsi poikaa tuijottamasta ikkunasta ulos.
poika
boy
opettaja
teacher
ikkuna
window
ulos
out
Questions & Answers about Opettaja kielsi poikaa tuijottamasta ikkunasta ulos.
Why is "tuijottamasta" in the -masta form?
This is the third infinitive in the elative case. Verbs of prevention like kieltää (to forbid) require the action being prevented to take the -masta or -mästä ending. You can think of the ending as translating directly to forbidding the boy "from staring".
Why is the object "poikaa" in the partitive case?
When kieltää is used to forbid someone from doing an action, the person being forbidden takes the partitive case. This is a set rule for this specific verb structure: kieltää + partitive person + -masta action.
Why does kieltää become kielsi in the past tense?
This is a helpful past tense (imperfekti) pattern to remember. Many verbs that have a consonant before the -tää (like -ltää, -rtää, or -ntää) change their t to an s before the past tense marker i. Just like tietää (to know) becomes tiesi, kieltää becomes kielsi.
How does the phrase "ikkunasta ulos" work together?
To say "out of the window" in Finnish, you typically put the noun in the elative case (ikkunasta, meaning "from the window") and follow it with the directional adverb ulos (out). It emphasizes the direction of the gaze moving from the inside to the outside.